The mobile home industry has made great strides in recent years in improving the ability of the structure to withstand extremes of temperature and, at the same time, be able to maintain a comfortable living environment within. Some of these improvements include thicker walls and increasing the amounts of insulation contained within the walls and ceilings. Nevertheless, these improvements in design have not been enough to keep up with the ever increasing requirements for insulation caused by the energy crisis and the rapidly accelerating price for fuel needed to heat and cool a mobile home. Also, there are a great number of mobile homes that have been previously constructed and sold and which are now being inhabited, but which do not include the improved insulating characteristics required of newly constructed mobile homes.
To improve the energy consumption for both new and older mobile homes as well, applicant has succeeded in developing a combined weatherproof and insulating cover suitable for enclosing the top and side walls of a mobile home. This protective cover has an outer layer to resist the usual extremes of weather including rain, snow, the hot summer sun, hail, and the like. An inner layer of foam insulating material or any other type of insulation impervious to moisture and humidity may be bonded to this protective outer cover and provide the extra insulation required to reduce a mobile home owner's energy bills. As can be appreciated, applicant's mobile home cover may be supplied at a price which will allow an owner to pay for the cover many times over through the savings achieved in his utility bills.
The protective cover may be attractively designed to blend with the decor of the surrounding countryside or otherwise to suit the owner's tastes. Openings may be cut in the protective cover to allow for the easy opening and closing of windows and snaps or other types of closures may be used to attach the protective cover around the border of the window opening. Similarly, openings may be provided for doors to allow free use thereof. Roll-away type plastic or transparent window covers may be provided and fasteners to retain the transparent window coverings in either the up or down position. Door panels may be provided with similar fasteners to attach a panel directly to the door of the mobile home, as desired. A window panel may even be provided in the door panel to accommodate a window in the door.
During installation, it is anticipated that custom holes will be required in the top of the cover to accommodate the various stacks extending through the roof of the mobile home. Thus, applicant's cover may be custom fit to the particular mobile home although basic overall sizes of covers may be provided which would fit a complete manufacturer's line of mobile homes.
The cover extends over the top and along the side walls of the mobile home and may have a series of tie-downs spaced along the bottom of the sides for tying the cover into position and securing it to the mobile home. These tie-downs may be fastened either to the undercarriage of the mobile home or to the mobile home through suitably disposed and anchored hooks, as desired.
Applicant's cover may be made available in kit form to retrofit an existing mobile home. In addition, applicant's cover may be provided as an option by mobile home manufacturers which allows the cover to be custom fit and installed at the manufacturing facility. It has become popular in recent years for mobile home manufacturers to offer energy efficient packages for the purchaser of a new mobile home, but it has been practically impossible to later check to see if the increased amounts of insulation are within the walls of the mobile home. With applicant's cover, the purchaser is assured of receiving the specified amount of insulation and he is easily able to investigate and determine the amount of insulation provided to him in the cover. Thus, it will be much more desirable for a purchaser to select applicant's cover as an optional energy efficient package as he can assure himself of receiving value for his money.
In some locales, it may be desirable to provide applicant's cover with no insulating materials and instead utilize the cover as a windbreak or weatherproofing device. This may be particularly useful in the warmer, wetter climates where air conditioning is unavailable and it is required to ventilate the mobile home to achieve a comfortable living environment. Roll-away transparent window covers are particularly adapted for use in these types of climates.
Applicant's invention may be more fully understood by referring to the drawings and detailed description of the preferred embodiment.